Battleground
by MysticFalls Fanfiction
Summary: (One shot) Elena returns to the battleground where a bloody massacre had happened. As she fights her humanity, she confronts another painful part of her past that ends tragically.


**AN: Oneshots aren't typically my favorite pieces to write, but every now and then I come up with an idea good enough for a short story or oneshot. This one is somewhat tragic and features Delena. Hope you guys like and please leave a review. Thank you for reading.**

**Battleground (OneShot)**

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The crisp air of winter nipped at her pale skin. Small white flakes fluttered from the sky above vanishing as they made contact with the different surfaces. Her eyes danced back and forth amongst them as they fell around her. She cringed as the haunting memories that flooded her mind as she once remembered her last encounter with winter's presence to Earth. The white, pure blanket that covered the ground was blemished with dark, red blotches. The silence of the flakes was interrupted by the screaming and desperate cries of mourning. A massacre had struck Mystic Falls. A once beautiful sight was now a ghastly scene.

Flicking the switch to her humanity off, she inhaled the brisk air and stepped out of the thick woods. The field of curved stones lined row by row punched her internally. Just the sight of it wanted to send her in a downward spiraling mess, but she didn't let it. The pain and sorrow was only an idea, she could no longer feel those things unless she let it in. She wouldn't let in. She had told herself she had moved on.

The ground crunched under her feet as she walked toward the cemetery. It was quiet, peaceful. The only life form in the surrounding area that she could disturb was a rabbit that she sensed hiding behind a bush. The sun was already beginning to set and considering the temperature continued to drop she knew she was alone.

Names carved carefully into the headstones passed her as she approached the first row and she respectfully walked by. Many of these names she did not know, but the few that she did she closed her eyes and said a prayer. She was never the religious type and faith had long been forgotten after what she had been through, however she didn't do it for herself, but for those she loved and lost.

Forbes. Lockwood. Donovan. Bennett.

When she reached Gilbert, she paused. There were four names scribed into the graves that made up her family: her mother and father, her brother, Jeremy, and then her. The death of her parents was tragic, but the loss of her brother was even worse. Her Aunt Jenna, though she wasn't a Gilbert might of well been, was next in line. Another traumatic loss to her family history and then there was her.

Elena Gilbert. The sight of her name on the grave was like looking at her reflection in a pond. Here lied her soul while her damaged mass still roamed the Earth. She didn't ponder long knowing she had to continue on. She had a reason for being here, returning to the battleground.

Quick flashbacks burned permanently in her head as the images of the bloody massacre scratched through the walls she had built. No matter what she did or how easily she could turn her humanity off, those images always haunted her. Even decades after everything was said and done.

Her compassion was her greatest weakness and she though she held on to it because it reminder her of what it was like to be human and filled with life, she knew it would destroy her if she ever let it back in completely.

The snow was falling heavier as she approached her destination. The reason why she lurked cautiously through the streets and into the forest and back to the place where the life of those she had loved was now buried was to go unseen. As she approached a stone that was larger than the rest, she stopped. Energy surrounded it as she took her stand directly in front of it. She withdrew her hands from her pockets and knelt down. From Mother Nature's doing, she wiped away the snow from the grave so she could read it clearly.

Salvatore. Two names were written below, Stefan and Damon. She was thankful for her ability to remember the memories without feeling. These memories she did not want to feel. These were forbidden. Too much pain, guilt, and love came from this spot. She knew if she did let everything come rushing back it would nearly kill her and she would find herself lying next to her family for good.

"Thought I find you here." A voice came a few feet from behind her. She wasn't startled and she didn't move. In fact, she had been aware of another presence the moment she knelt down on the grave. A pair of eyes had been watching her. She was not afraid and she placed her palm down into the snow leaving her print.

"You know I come back every year." She responded.

"And you know I never left."

Elena rose from the ground wiping the snow on her pants and she turned around. Tiny white specks fell into his hair and his face was constricted. The intensity and hostility radiated from him as he stood his ground and she remained in hers.

"It still feels like it was yesterday." She spoke twisting the mood.

"In our world, it is." His tone was dull and he looked past her. The headstone mocked him as he pressed his lips together and sighed. "Here lies Damon Salvatore, a son, a brother, and a pathetic waste of life."

This wasn't the first time she had heard him refer to himself in these terms. The guilt of surviving the battle had taken a toll on the both of them; they just showed it in different ways.

"I should be lying in that ground." Damon growled and his voice grew angrier and louder. "It should have been all of us or none of us."

"Damon," she began softly and tilting her head to the side. His chest heaved as he shook his head in despair and kicked the snow sending it floating and swirling off the ground.

"I can't live like this Elena." He gritted through his teeth holding on by a thin thread.

"Be thankful to be alive." Her voice nearly gave out as she shoved her hands back into her pockets. She bowed her head as she looked down the row of graves and a snowflake melted below her eye. The flake turning into liquid made it appear as it were a tear. She quickly wiped away the evidence and she kept her head low. "I still don't know how we are the only ones left."

An exhaled snort came from Damon as he took a few strides so he was parallel with her by his grave. The close proximity was a force field she had not felt in a while. Her humanity was fighting the urges again and she pushed back to keep them away.

"We survived because we were the only ones who knew how to." He explained bitterly. "When it came down to the end we knew the only way to make it out alive was to save ourselves."

"No." She responded. "I can't think that way. I tried…we tried to help them."

"We did. We did, Elena." Damon admitted remorsefully and turned bitter again. "But when we knew there was no hope for any of them, when we knew you and I had a chance to escape we fled. We fled like the selfish souls we are."

"I should have stayed." Elena confessed.

Damon paused a moment before he spoke again. She watched him carefully. "Then you would be dead too. We may have saved ourselves, but the thought of knowing that I could at least save one I'm glad it was you. When I looked up from Stefan's body and saw you hunched over Jeremy, I knew you needed to get out while you still could."

"And now look at us. You're right." She said looking straight into his eyes. "It should have been all of us or none of us."

A silence swept over them. A gentle breeze swept by and her hair danced in the wind. The hostility between them was forming even more and she knew this was not the return she had hoped for. So many years had passed and each one she paid her respects and moved on while Damon lurked in the distance watching her. She felt him there every time she came, but this was the first time he had ever decided to confront her. His reason to be angry wasn't shocking and she knew he was desperate to see her, but she also knew she couldn't stay no matter how much he was about to beg her too.

"Why did you leave?" Damon asked right on queue.

Elena regretted not leaving sooner. This conversation was long overdue and now she wanted to avoid it at all costs.

"You know why I left Damon." She answered him giving him sad eyes.

"No, I don't actually." His voice rose over the winter storm that was now blowing through. The eerie images of a familiar storm spooked her as she recalled the beginning of the battle.

"Because I couldn't stay here after it!" Elena yelled. "I couldn't. Why would I want to stay in a place that has only brought on misery? I've lost everyone. I had to move on. I had to get away."

"You had me!" Damon returned the screaming match and she shook at the bass of his cry. "You knew I was still alive and you left. You had someone and you left."

"I had to leave. I had to deal with it Damon. You know that better than anyone else." She tried to make sense of her departure, but he wasn't listening. There was fire in his eyes.

"We could have dealt with it _together!_" The desperation in his voice was clear as day. He grabbed her elbows and a pleading look was upon his face. "Hell, it beats doing it alone."

The clawing of her humanity was tearing her insides. The blood was boiling inside her. Leaving him was all she knew back then and as much as he desired for her to return and stay with him something was forcing her away. The names upon the graves were enough to send her running. The mess of brutally dead bodies of her friends and family was more than she could take. Staying in Mystic Falls would be just a painful reminder day after day.

"Damon, I can't." She replied with a weak voice.

"Damn it Elena! It's been 45 years!" He screamed and growled. His shoulders were tense and the surge of anger was about to break.

"You don't think I know that?!" Another brisk wind swept through and the snow was causing her vision to become blurred. The snowflakes were attaching to her eyes lids making it hard to see. She brushed them away.

"45 years and not once have you even seen me. You come back to see Jeremy, Caroline, Stefan, but not me. The one person who is still alive, the one person who you can count on." He bellowed. "Maybe if I were dead you would actually care."

"That's not true." She said.

"But it is." He snickered. "My name and your name may be on these graves so the belief that no one survived lives on, but that fact that you and I are still here should mean something. And if I can't even earn an ounce of respect from you…then I am dead. I am dead to this world, our world, and to you."

His hand reached into his jacket and he withdrew a wooden stake. The motions were fast and she panicked. He was planning this. He knew exactly what he was doing. Blood. Bodies. The screams of the dead. She couldn't witness another. She plunged forward as he held the stake above his heart and drove it down. Grasping the end they struggled. She wouldn't let him be selfish. She wouldn't let him kill himself because she was selfish. Maybe she should have stayed and maybe they could have dealt with the pain together, but what was done was done. The past could not be rewritten.

Contemplating death was a consistent thought. She knew she could easily be reunited with her loved ones by simply removing her sun-protecting ring and burning beneath the rays of daylight. She could also drive a stake through her heart and end it too. But she didn't. It wasn't because she knew she couldn't go through with it. It was because she knew Damon was still alive and even though after 45 years of disconnection from him one day she would return. Right now, she still couldn't find the strength to do so.

The wood splintered her hands as she pulled the stake away from him. They both fell to the ground and stake buried itself in the snow. She lay motionless staring up as the thousands of flakes falling down. This was what it must have felt like for Bonnie as she knew death was near. This was what Matt must have seen before darkness took over. A sight that was so beautiful graces you before the final seconds of life.

A choking sound omitted into the air and she sat up quickly. Damon gasped as his hands trembled away from his heart. Despite her efforts, the beauty of the snowfall had distracted her. He had grabbed the stake again and succeeded with his attempt. The last few remaining breaths were short. She knelt over him as he looked up at her unable to speak and her eyes scanned him. Her humanity switched on and she let out a mournful cry. The nightmare of the massacre had returned and took another victim. His head fell to the side and he was gone. Now she truly had no one.

He had been right. She did care more now that he was dead.

Reacting on pure emotion, Elena lied next to him. Her head was on his arm resting and she cried. She cried for a long time and then she removed the stake from his heart. Examining the pointed end she saw the stained blood that belonged to him. The hope and the will to live were gone. In her opinion, she was already dead.

She knew her next move was selfish, but she didn't care. 45 years ago she should have been one of the bodies amongst the dead. Today, she would be. One would become two. Her and Damon would officially move. They would reunite with everyone. They would begin a new chapter in a life after death. Elena drove the stake through her heart and the pain was instant. The battle had finally taken its last victim.


End file.
